


Feathers of Many Colors Flock Together

by Trinz



Category: Half-Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, Amputation, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25662298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trinz/pseuds/Trinz
Summary: HLVR but the AI Have Wings- a series of small ficlets rewritting HLVRAI but everyone has wings and it changes some things.
Kudos: 50





	Feathers of Many Colors Flock Together

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to keep everyone's section equal lengths but then Darnold happened.

During HEV training Gordon had been required to stay in the suit for twelve hours but that torturous experience was nothing compared to being in it for days at a time. The explosion- resonance cascade- bruised his entire body but his wings felt it most as he was unable to stretch them out in the restrictive suit. The adrenaline of fighting aliens and the military and trying not to die pushed the discomfort to the back of his mind but the instant they fell into a lull the pain returned and Gordon attempted to distract himself with it by filling the empty space with words. His friends and allies were plenty of help in that department.

By the time he was pushed to the ground by a handful of soldiers in a dark room he could barely feel his wing shoulders.

And, even though wings weren't on the menu, Gordon definitely felt the blade that went through his wing arm where it met its shoulder. He could barely hear the sounds of the others commentating in horror over his own screams of pain. Eventually, he passed out, when one of the soldiers crushed his right hand with a leather boot while Gordon was thrashing around, and the pain of his severed right wing overtook him.

Immediately upon waking up Gordon's pain-addled brain tried to rationalize his missing wings- all they did was look kind of pretty and make his back ache after a long day- so there was no real loss there. His right hand, however, was a different story, it had been mangled and when Gordon tried to move it it only twitched feebly and hurt immensely, he couldn't defend himself with his dominant hand useless.

Laying on the ground next to him was a single feather; immediately Gordon could identify it as coming from the middle of his wing. It was streaked with an even mix of orange and gray- a transition from the bright orange of his upper wings and the light gray of the lower portion. He gingerly picked it up with his left hand, groaning in pain at the shifting of his back muscles, and for a moment considered sticking it in his hair for safekeeping when he remembered the helmet blocking the way.

He could still preserve it, Gordon mused, it wasn't uncommon for people mourning loved ones or their own feathers. He'd just need to bring it to the surface through endless life or death scenarios.

Easy.

~~~

Before… everything that happened Gordon hadn't paid much attention to people's wings. He admired pretty ones but it was like hair to him- not that important when it came to appearances especially because they spent most of their time hiding behind people's backs.

But now, he couldn't keep his eyes off of Tommy's bright yellow and sparsely spotted wings flared slightly protectively in front of him. Gordon's eyes were glued to Tommy's rainbow spots as they made their way through Black Mesa's piping.

"Hey Tommy your wings are very… colorful."

"Thank you… Mr. Freeman. I'm glad- you can't see all the colors so it's good that you still like it."

Gordon paused in shock as he assessed the colors on Tommy's wings.

"What- what does that mean?"

"Humans can't perceive… most colors."

"Ah." Ultraviolet and infrared colors covered Tommy's wings.

"Watch out Mr. Freeman." Tommy said after a moment. "There's a drop."

He watched as Tommy dropped out of the pipe and flared his wings to slow his fall before hitting the water. Gordon simply plopped into the water after him, cursing the pain in his back and hand.

The slimy sewage water(which was not clean despite Tommy's objections) flowed into the holes in the suit and got in his wounds and his clothes.

"Oh god- oh my god this is awful." Gordon bemoaned.

Under Tommy's advice Gordon dove down and resurfaced to the sight of at least four dozen Coomer clones.

A chorus of 'Hello Gordon's' and a veritable wall of nuclear green feathers met him as he scrambled out of the water.

"I've unleashed the power of all 300 clones!" Coomer's voice echoed in the room.

Strong wings- Power Wings™ according to the astonishing display or flight Dr. Coomer displayed when he jumped over a cliff- buffeted and shoved him around.

"This is the worst possible situation!" Gordon shouted directly before getting a mouthful of Coomer's dark green and red primaries.

"There's an entrance in your suit Dr. Freeman and I want in!"

"Tommy- Tommy you have to shoot them; kill the clones!" Gordon completely lost track of Tommy in the flurry of feathers and could only hope he could be heard.

Coomer spoke again, "I've been outside of Black Mesa Dr. Freeman- there's nothing there but you! I know there's a world in your dreams and I need to go there!"

Gordon looked into crazed eyes for a moment before pushing past him and bolting.

~~~

Bubby's tube was simultaneously nothing like Gordon expected and exactly like it at the same time. It was very big and filled with a thick clear liquid lit by a green light that Bubby was suspended in and appeared to breath. His wings were splayed out and curved inwards to accommodate the diameter of the tube, they too seemed to be stuck in the liquid.

"Gordon!" Bubby shouted, voice distorted by the glass and the liquid. "Gordon you have to let me out- they put me back in my tube!!"

Gordon stepped closer to inspect him and Bubby's wings, bright blue at the top that abruptly became black and then orange and red, and Bubby’s entire body twitched with effort.

Despite Gordon's early hostility he eventually agreed to let Bubby out of the tube and as soon as the glass shattered the liquid slowly poured to the ground and Bubby fell with it, gasping and coughing for air. His wings flapped a few times and shook most of the liquid out of them.

~~~

"I… am… in charge of the mixology department."

Gordon pulled his eyes away from Darnold's orange wings with a pattern that made them look like multicolored paint had been dripped onto them.

"I thought we were going- I thought this was supposed to be the cybernetics department!" He stared wide eyed at the others. "Dr. Coomer, you said the cybernetics department was on the way to the Lambda lab!"

"Oh, the cybernetics department?" Darnold's wings shifted nervously. "They were here but they got their funding cut after their ill-fated 'Cyber-Mutt' project."

Gordon sighed. "Well this is a nightmare."

Darnold's wings shifted in surprise when his eyes focused on what should have been behind him. "Your wings are missing'"

"Enough people have told me that enough times-" Gordon was cut off by a cacophony of noise from the peanut gallery, one of whom called him an idiot.

The, uh, mixologist moved behind him and hummed. "Is that some green in there I see? Cybernetics won't help you there…"

"He's been swimming in a lot of sewage." Dr. Coomer commented.

"How long have you had those off?"

"I don't know!? How long has it been? A day and three hours, give or take?"

Darnold looked shocked. "Studies show that the longest someone can live without their wings is one day and four hours!"

Gordon swore in surprise.

"I think we need to help ya out and I have been working on a top secret project. It's a potion."

"A potion!" He parroted in shock.

"Yes, a potion." Darnold nodded as if it made sense. "A scientist can't live with knowing that someone has had their wings off for a day and three hours. So, I'm gonna make use of my top secret, government-funded, extreme, delicious, potion. I'm gonna give you some because it has... secret regenerative properties unknown to man."

"Unknown to man?" Gordon parroted again.

Darnold turned away to spot Dr. Coomer sitting on a massive barrel. "Please don't sit on the potion."

Gordon gaped in shock as Dr. Coomer hopped off it. "That's the potion!"

The man heaved the barrel onto its side with a resounding thud. "Yes. And you have to drink all of it to… to get its effects."

"Oh my god…"

After some heckling from the others Gordon put his feather down and gulped down the potion and momentarily blacked out as the 'potion' took effect.

He woke up on his stomach with something weighing on his back- for a brief moment he thought it was his wings before he realized that they felt wrong.

Machine guns took the place of his wings, to his horror- along with his right hand.

"My hand wasn't missing- what the hell did you do to it!"

Darnold assessed the machine gun that had also replaced his hand. "Well, it is experimental, I think it healed your hand with… something."

"Holy shit I'm so done with this- can you even tell me what the hell you did to me?" Gordon demanded.

So… his wings had been replaced with mounted machine guns he could freely control but not fire outside of… Devil Gun Mode?

~~~

"Forzen got away again!" Gordon glanced around the area one last time. "I wanted to shoot his ass for endangering a poor sweet dog."

The others stared at the massive golden retriever in front of them.

"So that's Sunkist?" Gordon asked.

"Yes." Tommy replied.

"He looks a little…." He trailed off.

"Why? Why? What's wrong with him- do you think there's something wrong with him?"

"No, I think he's okay but is this just what he looks like?"

"Oh he better be- better that okay! This is- Sunkist is the perfect dog!"

Gordon looked at Tommy, then the others, and back to Sunkist. "He has wings, Tommy."

Big, yellow ones, the same color as Sunkist's fur were folded on the dog's back.

"Of course he does! I made him that way- what if- he could fall off a cliff like… like Minecraft dogs and I didn't want him to get hurt."

"What the hell is Minecraft?" Bubby asked.

Across the room Gordon spotted Forzen between two massive crates. He walked up and pointed his hand-gun at the soldier.

"Why did you kidnap the dog?"

Forzen froze upon being seen.

"What do you want?" Gordon demanded.

"I have one request." Forzen said.

Forzen threw up one of his wings- dark green with small white stripes- and hid behind it before clearly moving to the left.

Gordon sighed and went around the back of the crates to confront him again. "You want me to dispel the lies about Chris Bores- who is that?"

"Chris Bores Angry Video Game- uh- Irate Gamer!"

"What?" He laughed incredulously. "I don't know what that is."

"Wait- hold on-" Forzen disappeared in front of him.

Gordon shook his head in disbelief and made his way out of the crates.

"How are we going to handle this dog with us, though?" Bubby subtly compared his height to Sunkist.

"Yeah he's just… so big!" Gordon added.

"Sunkist… I made him extra big! Big dogs are better!" Tommy explained. "Sunkist, it's not safe here, you have to go home."

Sunkist looked at Tommy then threw out his big wings before flapping and simply flying through the ceiling and disappearing.

~~~

"Doctor Freeman…" Reality warped and Tommy’s weird father’s voice echoed in the air.

His wings appeared first in front of Gordon, massive, pitch black, and with a pattern that looked like stars, and they quickly opened and then folded back neatly behind the man's back.

"It's good to see you in such… good… spirits. You are nearing the end of your journey my friend, and, I thought it would only be fitting to-"

The man's wings shook in shock at the sight of Benrey approaching him and Gordon swore he saw a shooting star pass by the small bit of his wing he could see.

"Do you have- do you have credentials?" Benrey asked.

The business man looked between Gordon and Benrey in shock. Upon noticing this Benrey stretched a wing out between them, blocking the man's view, which also gave Gordon his first proper look at them- the very top feathers were a dark blue and the remaining were as black as the other man's.

Gordon stared in wide-eyed disbelief as Benrey antagonized someone that wasn't him- for once- until he left.

~~~

They were in Xen, or whatever the fuck, sitting on a floating island. Benrey appeared and he was massive and so were his wings, flared out to intimidate them or something, blocking their view of the space behind him. His wings were no longer black, instead, spheres- because he suddenly understood that there was more than simple 2D space on Benrey's wings- of all colors(but mostly blue) lazily crossed his wingspan, appearing and disappearing on the edges.

"Benrey- holy shit- your wings?"

"What- is there something wrong with Benrey's wings?" Tommy asked.

"They're… colorful!" Gordon exclaimed as he pointed at them.

"They've always looked like that." Tommy countered.

"No… that can't be right! Back me up Dr. Coomer."

He gazed at Benrey. "They were definitely black before."

"See!"

Benrey moved his massive body towards them. "You like them?"

"I… sure?"

"Thanks bro." Benrey smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Also, please warn me if there are any typos or grammatical errors- I'm so bad noticing them even in a third reread.


End file.
